Namcor defends paying N$1m for team building

THE National Petroleum Cor­poration of Namibia (Namcor) has defended paying an esti­mated N$1 million to a South African industrial psychologist for running the parastatal’s team building exer­cises.
Opposing, the parastatal’s commu­nication and public relations special­ist Utaara Hoveka said that the money was paid to psychologist Sean Ger­mond through his Cape Town-based consultancy and coaching practice Pygmalion for varied services, includ­ing team building.
“…That includes all the interven­tions outlined such as DOE, leader­ship forum etc,” Hoveka said.
Hoveka further explained that when Namcor took a bold decision to transform itself into a self-sustaining and commercial state owned enter­prise, there was a need for a high per­formance team building intervention.
“…Our journey these past three years has seen NAMCOR take on the challenge of implementing a world-class strategic plan that was crafted in 2013 to enable us to rise to the chal­lenge of ensuring that, as the National Oil and Petroleum corporation of Namibia, we can have a brand and service offering (both upstream ex­ploration and production and down­stream supply and marketing of fuel products) that supports the economic growth and energy security of our country.
“We have recruited world-class tal­ent, risen to the challenge of setting up a distribution footprint that would enable us to serve the unserved (rural Namibian population), and are final­ising our downstream ambition to open our very own petrol stations. We have invested in systems (ICT, HR, SHeQ) to ensure we exceed our licence to operate, are busy building an infrastructure (depot footprint and forecourts) that will ensure we have the footprint to deliver on our Man­date, and have focussed on people development initiatives (technical, functional and leadership/teamwork skills) to deliver on the goals that we have set for ourselves.
“It became apparent in 2014 (from an internal climate survey) that the changes in our business also required major changes in our culture – our mind sets, our ways of working and how we are able to work across de­partments to ensure that we are all playing the same game.
“It was against this background that the high performance team building intervention was recommended and approved. This was the basis on which a decision was taken in the beginning of 2014 to secure the services of a ser­vice provider with a proven track re­cord of developing high performance teams and organisational culture. Pygmalion was one of the bidding entities, and was given the mandate to deliver a bespoke team development intervention that would have a posi­tive impact on both teamwork (social cohesion) and task delivery (plan ex­ecution),” Hoveka explained.
As for the performance bonuses in which it is alleged that the high­est paid got an estimated N$300 000 while the lowest got N$3000, Hoveka said that the amounts were incorrect but declined to disclose the factual ones. “…Assertions that the highest performance bonus amount paid to an individual employee was N$300 000 is factually incorrect. In-fact, the highest paid amount was far less than the reported amount… I am not at liberty to disclose as it is highly con­fidential.”